Am I included, or do I belong?

I was speaking with a friend recently on the topic of inclusion, and how or whether we, in private Christian schools really are inclusive.
I don't have a reference for it (let me know if you know who said it!), but she left me with a quote that took a while to mentally digest:  "Inclusion means that we will include you if you show up.  Belonging means that we will look for you if you aren't there."
On the heels of an amazing weekend of support for our Christian schools, I'm watching (and celebrating) as our community diversifies.  There are some who have been a part of the fabric of our schools since before we opened.  There are others who have just discovered who we are and what we are about.  Coincidentally, this latter group is the one that often comes to us and reminds us "Do you KNOW what a great thing you have here?"  
Another long-time supporter of our schools said to me about a year ago: "I know that we're warm and friendly.  I think we can be hospitable, but we need to be taught how..."
What cultures exist in our schools that make it difficult for people to feel like they belong?  Can we build a culture that makes it easy for people to become one of 'us'? A parent new to our community celebrated with us the other day that their child had been invited to a birthday party.  That child was not just included but invited into relationship beyond the structure of a school day.  That simple act communicated to the child that they were not only included, but that they belonged.
Perhaps we have a lot to learn from our kids!  
In our adult world, what opportunities do we have to make sure that those who are new or different (or even just starting to check us out) feel welcome, and that we would look for them if they weren't there?  Are they just included, or do they truly belong?
Matthew 25:35-40   Mark 10:45

Friend-raising

We are in the season of fundraising for our schools.  We have come through successful peach-peeling, apple pie-making, a golf tournament... we are in the midst of our annual fall drive and are about to launch into our Family Fun Fest.

In the non-profit world of development, some of this activity is often referred to as 'Friend-Raising'.  Definitions vary wildly around this made-up word, but it is a concept I've grown to love as it refers to some of our efforts here at NACE.  Developing friends and relationships with people who love our schools and want to see them thrive is the central tenet of this activity, and with acknowledgement to the writers atwww.101fundraising.org, I give you the following thoughts around our activity this year:

• F - Fun. Fundraising can be fun.  Connecting new people to NACE and building friendships as we work together are added benefits to the funds generated by our activity.
  
• R - Relationship.  By running similar events year after year, we grow relationships with people willing to give a second, third, fourth time, and actually expect and look forward to our call for assistance.
  
• I - Innovation.  New people coming on board help us to see how we've done things and how to improve them.  Our fundraising is constantly changing to adapt to what people need, want, and how to connect even more people to the cause of Christian Education.
  
• E - Everyone.  In an organisation like NACE, there is a chance for 100% involvement in fundraising.  If not with one event, then another, or a few!
  
• N - Network.  Each of us is involved in multiple organisations.  By getting together, we see each other in other venues and can carry the vision of NACE beyond our own small community.  Many relationships have been forged long term due to the networks you are connected to!
  
• D - Dialogue.  As we meet together over activities and fundraising, and carrying forward our mission as a school society, we get to know one another and get to appreciate our commonalities.  We get to know our support community and why they love NACE.  This dialogue is important to keep our friendships alive and flourishing.
  

As you involve yourself in our fundraising, challenge yourself to make new friends - with donors, with supporters, with others in the NACE community.  That new person you meet is NACE's next long-term friendship in the making!

F2F

It's that time!  We are ready for that hallmark of the school year: Parent-Teacher interviews.  This regularly scheduled meeting has a number of goals and objectives, but the most central of all is to 'ensure that our students are on the right path to learning'.  

When I bring up the topic of parent-teacher interviews, both parents are teachers alike can respond in fear and trepidation.  In mainstream media, we hear stories of confrontation, defensiveness, shame, etc etc etc stemming from the PTI.  This popular rendition, thankfully, is not what we experience on a regular basis at NACE.  In a community where the parents are so invested in their children's education and the school, these meetings quickly convey the shared support and investment we have in our children's well-begin and education.  

So now that the year has begun and the emails, newsletters, class reports, and other modes of communication have flown back and forth, it is time for some dedicated discussion on how the year has begun.  The Face-to-Face, or F2F as our texting teens refer to it.  Even the avid online communicator knows that eventually, we need to bridge the gap that other connections miss and sit down together face-to-face.

While I'm on popular media, sayings, and culture, perhaps an often used cliche applies to the feeling I get before and after a round of parent teacher interviews: "We're all in this together!"  Thank God for a community focussed on raising our children together in the light of God's word and faithfulness!

Weaving Christ into Habit and Celebration

I watched over the weekend as my family pulled away from the 'busy-ness' of everyday life and was able to enjoy a long weekend.  Thanksgiving.  It was a relatively typical Thanksgiving weekend as I look through my Facebook feed this morning and see that so many other families engaged in similar activities: Driving to family, preparation of a large meal, hikes in the fall colours, and games with siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends.

I spent some time yesterday with a cousin paging through a photo album of 'Thanksgivings past' which documented my father's extended family and their celebrations over the years.  Along with comment of how styles have changed, how some of our family members are no longer with us, and how we've grown, there was a distinct sense of God's faithfulness and providence.  I recall over the years the ways in which Christ was made present at and invited to each gathering and how instrumental my family and extended family was in affirming and re-affirming that God is good, all the time.  Even, and perhaps especially, in the not-so-good times.

As a school community, it is that same habit that we seek to build daily.  God is here in our hallways.  He is in our every day.  He is present when we celebrate, and in the everyday routine;  when we begin the day, and when we end it; and when we learn everything in between.  God is good, all the time.

Some day in the distant future, when your kids look back to school days past, it is my prayer that they will remember that most poignantly, and that it will have carried on into their everyday and into their celebration.

Testing

This week and next, we will be assessing our students' abilities in reading, writing, and mathematics.  This is a new initiative that many other schools are beginning with us from grades 1 through 8.  Please find the letter attached to this newsletter for more details. 

We know that math and literacy skills are important, and that to be an educational institution worth its merit, we need to teach and learn these things well.  These tests are an important part of that process.  HOWEVER, they are not an indicator of so many things of value.

These tests will not measure how students treated each other last week, if they were polite to the stranger, if they helped around the house, if they comforted someone who needed it, or if they tried to include someone who was left out. They won't measure their character, the depth of their thinking, or what they care about.  The lowest standardised test score in the school may belong to the most caring, empathetic, and loving student among us.  We know that which is why the results will be important, but they will take their proper place among all of the other assessments and feedback we engage in on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis, which include so much more than what a test can measure.

Ultimately, each student at NACE is valued, but even we get it wrong.  It's important to remind ourselves often that our students are not valued for any of these things in God's eyes.  When God sees them, he sees his Son who bears their sins and wipes them away.  

The cross of Christ.  How's that for a standardised test?  Romans 5:9-11

How are you doing?

If your family is anything like mine, the past few weeks have been a blur.  We started a few weeks ago with new school supplies, a fresh and ready for school smile (my tween son even asked me to make sure I woke him early to leave for school!), and the excitement of new things in a new year.

We are now settling in to routines, figuring out sports and activity schedules, finding time for homework and music practices, and working through new church season activity schedules.  Getting out of bed in the morning is not as easy as it was on that first day!!!

Now that the shine is (literally!) wearing off of the first few days of school, I'm checking in.  How are you and your family doing?  One of the hallmarks of a good relationship is the ability to listen, and I would love to hear your story(ies).  There are always good things happening, and there are always things that could be better.  One game our family plays on a daily basis over dinner is called "Two stars and a strike.....",  where my wife and I attempt to pry out of our children an evaluation of the day - what were two good things you experienced today, and what was one hard thing?  Often, there is very little we can do to change any of their experiences, but it gives them an opportunity to express not only what is happening, but how they are handling those experiences.

So, let me do the same with you!  Can you tell me two stars and a strike?  None of the questions is mandatory - you can skip straight to the strike, or you can provide only stars...  but I'll provide opportunity for both.  

Three ways you can respond:  

1) Online - https://goo.gl/forms/svQ1AYnqV4rvB2wj2  (this is easiest!)

2) Email - Send me an email with the subject "Two Stars and a Strike"

3) Write it down and send it in to the office to my attention.

Blessings to you as you enter this new week that the Lord has made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it!!!

Unity in Diversity

Last week, I asked for prayers for our upcoming week of committee meetings as they began their work for the year.  Along with the beginning of many different tasks ahead of us, I was also able to take part in the annual NACE/SCH golf tournament. If I'm left after this week with any lasting impression of NACE and its supporters (spiritual, practical, moral, financial, and visionary), it would be that we are indeed a community with many differences as well as a community committed to unity.  

We hail from as far apart as Hamilton and Welland, are country and city, are old and young, are products of Christian education ourselves, or just new to the experience.  And yet, there is a common passion and excitement about what NACE schools do and can mean for our kids.

Are we always in agreement?  No, of course not.  We are diverse, and with diversity will come different ideas and opinions.   I will share later this year my thoughts on healthy conflict, but I will say this:  where there is disagreement, there is discomfort and a longing for unity.  There is also an 'iron sharpening iron' where ideas are able to percolate and good ones are able to rise to the surface.

This diversity is what initially drew me to come to work at NACE.  Different school communities coming together to work together and celebrate what each brings to the table and capitalising on our strengths together.... I believe it provides us with a glimpse of God's coming Kingdom.

Are you a hand?  A foot?  An eye?  

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. (1 Corinthians 12:21-27)

If we aspire to have our children live in this way, it needs to begin with us - the adults and mentors in their lives to set an example in their school, classrooms, and at home.

This week, Mrs. Dejardins, Mrs. Koornneef and I have the privilege of joining colleagues at the Canada Christian Schools Conference.  Please pray for us as we seek unity and to be challenged by our friends in Christian education across our Nation, and that God will continue to be glorified in our diversity there and here at home.